


Number on a Napkin

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Awkward Flirting, Crush at First Sight, First Dates, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Phone Calls & Telephones, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, or perhaps at first sound?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 02:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4859783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean writes his cell phone number on a napkin for a cute waitress he's been flirting with. He's not expecting to later get a phone call from a man called Castiel, who definitely isn't the waitress (but may still be cute.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Number on a Napkin

**Author's Note:**

> last night when I sat down to eat I found a napkin with a phone number written on it. I didn't call it but it did inspire me to write a fic so I kept thinking about this idea all through my lasagna and then it just kinda happened
> 
> one day I will publish something long and substantial and beautiful but today is not that day so have a quick oneshot instead

"Here's your pie to go. I hope your brother enjoys it. Have a good day, sir." The cute blonde waitress winked and walked away, and Dean could have sworn she was swinging her hips more than usual. Not that he'd been watching her the entire time he was eating his bacon burger and chili cheese fries or anything.

Fine, he totally had been, and she'd _totally_ made eye contact a few times, as well as staying to talk to him a little too long when she'd brought him his order. All that was left was for him to ask her out - but she was busy with another table now, and anyway, she didn't seem like the type who wanted a guy to be too eager. He'd let her make the first move.

He pulled a clean napkin towards him, scrawled his phone number on it, read it over to make sure it was legible and left it next to a generous tip.

Once he'd left the diner and made it into his car he congratulated himself on a successful flirtation by tucking into the apple and raspberry pie that he definitely hadn't bought for Sammy at all, and turning up Bon Jovi on the radio to maximum volume.

It was about three hours later that his phone rang with a call from an unknown number. By this point Dean was home, lying on the couch in front of _The Empire Strikes Back_ , enjoying his day off work. He couldn't be totally sure it was the waitress, but she was the only person he'd given his number to recently, so he figured he had a fair chance. Especially since if she was calling so soon, that meant she was pretty eager and he was in with a shot at getting laid tonight.

He picked up. "Hey, this is Dean," he said, trying to make himself sound casual but also mysterious and seductive.

There was a pause from the other end of the line, and then a ridiculously deep voice said, "Hello, Dean."

The voice didn't say anything else.

One thing was for certain - it definitely wasn't the waitress.

"Who is this?" Dean asked, after an awkward silence.

"My name is Castiel. I found your telephone number on a table at the Lawrence Diner," the voice replied, as though it was obvious.

"And you... uh... you called it?" Dean asked, confused.

"Yes. I was curious."

That was all. That was every justification he was giving for why he'd opened his phone and dialed a number without having any idea who or what would be on the other end. What the hell?

"I see now that this was an inappropriate thing to do. I apologize. I'll just go."

"No!" Dean said it before he had a chance to really think about it. This wasn't the phone call he'd ever wanted or expected, but somehow he didn't feel like he could just leave it there. There had to be more to this. "Don't go. Tell me... tell me something about you."

"Why do you want to know about me?"

"I don't know." Dean couldn't even really explain it to himself. "You saw a phone number on a table in a diner and you just called it. Most people would throw it away. There's gotta be something interesting about the guy who picks up the phone with no idea who's going to be on the other end. I mean, I could have been a dodgy Chinese takeout or a porn agency or a scientology hotline. But you still called."

"I wasn't sure why you left it. I thought maybe it was something important, so I should call."

Dean laughed, running a hand through his hair. That was the most naive and downright adorable thing he'd ever heard. "No, man, I left it under my tip. For the waitress. I was hoping to get a date, but I guess she wasn't interested."

"Oh," said a small voice on the other end of the phone. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

"It's fine. It happens."

"Well... do you want me to go? So that you can go out and find another date?"

Dean really didn't. The couch was comfortable and there was a big bowl of chips within arm's length and maybe a night in was just what he needed. "Nope, I'm good. Who needs a date when you have an anonymous stranger talking to you on the phone?"

Castiel laughed, but didn't say anything else. Dean found himself weirdly caught up in the way that laugh sounded. It made his stomach flutter and it made him want to keep the conversation going in hope of drawing that laugh out of the man again.

"You said when you called you thought it was something important. I can tell you important things if that's what you want to hear."

"Important things like what?" Castiel sounded genuinely interested; and not like he was just playing along with Dean's game.

"The most important things in the world. How to fix a car after it gets banged up. The title of every song on every Led Zeppelin album. The life history of Harrison Ford. How to give girls the most amazing oral sex."

"I don't think I'll be needing that last one."

Dean smirked, amused. "Oh yeah? Already a master, are you?"

"No. I just don't have any interest in doing that... to _girls._ "

There was a strange emphasis on the word 'girls', and it took Dean a few moments to piece together what that meant. "Wait. Are you saying you're not interested in girls? Because you are interested in..."

"I'm gay, Dean. That's what I'm saying."

"Yes. That."

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine." Dean wasn't uncomfortable exactly. More... thrown off guard. "I asked you to tell me something about yourself and you did. Sure, I expected your favorite color or what you do for a living, but you being gay works too."

"Green. And I work in a daycare center. What about you?"

"My eyes are green..." Dean murmured, without thinking about it.

"What?"

Dean shook his head, confused. Why the hell did he say that? "What? Nothing. Um, my favorite color's blue, and I'm a technician down at the concert hall."

"That's interesting. You must get into a lot of free concerts."

Dean got that question a lot. Most of the time, people wanted to know if he could get them in for free, too. Cas sounded genuinely interested.

"Yeah, I do. Not all of them good. My bosses made me go see Taylor Swift last month." Dean had actually raised his fists at a coworker in order to get his hands on that ticket, but there was no way he was admitting that to this guy.

"Why would they make you go to concerts? Surely you'd be more useful backstage or something."

Dean groaned, caught out. "Yeah, that's what I meant, but I still had to listen to-- oh, all right, fine. I wanted to go. Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

Castiel laughed again; and again, the laugh did funny things to Dean's stomach. "Of course I won't tell. Just so long as you don't tell anyone I still don't know how to tie a tie and have to ask somebody for help whenever I go to a formal event."

Dean giggled, imagining Cas struggling with a tie and looking at it like it had come from outer space. "Your secret's safe with me, Cas."

They kept talking. Dean settled into the couch for the oddest, strangest and best telephone conversation he'd ever had, smiling at Castiel's words, the way he audibly clapped a hand over his mouth when he thought he'd said something wrong, the different intonations of his voice when he was animated or confused or wistful. In turn, Dean opened up to Cas, telling him things about his life he wouldn't generally confess to anyone. Castiel was awkward and different but at the same time he was also kind and caring and weirdly easy to talk to, and Dean lost track of time, but his TV went into standby mode so it had to have been a while.

"So... I wasn't going to tell you this, but I feel bad about it. Can I make a confession?" Castiel asked at some point.

Dean's heart sank, and he realized quite how much he was enjoying this conversation, and how much he didn't want Castiel to say anything that might ruin it.

"I don't want to scare you away from this conversation, because it's been really nice talking to you, but... I saw you leave your number in the diner. I thought you were very attractive so I waited to see if the waitress picked it up and when she didn't... I took it for myself. My brother Gabriel is always telling me to seize the day and be more outgoing, so I just looked at the number and thought... what would happen if I called? What's the worst that could happen? You could hang up on me and think I'm crazy, sure, but that doesn't matter, I mean, you don't even know my last name, and-"

He was babbling now, flustered, and Dean had to cover his mouth to hold in an affectionate chuckle before he could cut in by saying, "I don't imagine Castiel is a particularly common name. I could probably find you if I really wanted. But... I'm not going to hang up on you."

Castiel stopped talking. "You're not?"

Dean really wasn't. For some reason Cas' 'big revelation' didn't even feel like that much of a big deal. So the guy had seen him leave the diner earlier. So what? It wasn't really any weirder than Dean spying a pretty girl across the bar, figuring out what she was drinking and getting the next round sent over to her. Castiel, too, had seen someone he found attractive and worked out a way to talk to them. It was the same flirting technique, when it came down to it.

And knowing it was directed at him made Dean's heart jump in his chest in a way that was all too familiar.

"No, course I won't. Dude, I paused Star Wars for you. I don't do that for just anyone. There's clearly something... I don't know, something special about you."

"There's really not," Castiel backtracked.

"Yes there is! I mean, I haven't actually figured out what it is yet. But, tell you what..."

Dean trailed off. He'd been about to suggest that the guy came over to give Dean a chance to find out what it was. Not a date exactly, but now _not_ a date either. Just a chance to get to know each other a little better. In person. Where they could look each other in the eyes and brush legs on the couch and Dean could put his arm around Cas as Cas laid his head on Dean's shoulder...

"What?" Castiel asked, once Dean had become lost in his thoughts.

Dean's phone buzzed. Not Castiel; another incoming call.

"Um. There's someone else calling me. But please don't go, I'll call you back in just a minute, I promise."

"Okay." Castiel sounded disappointed, or resigned, like he didn't believe Dean at all but he was hardly going to call him out on it. "Bye."

Dean didn't have time to tell Cas that he really was telling the truth, and he really did want to keep talking, before Cas hung up on him. A heavy feeling in his chest, Dean switched to the other call; also from an unknown number.

"Hey, this is Dean," he said, tiredly.

"Hi!" a bright, excited voice replied. "I'm the waitress from the Lawrence Diner? You left your number earlier and I put it in my phone but I couldn't call until I got off shift. Which I just did!"

Dean's eyes widened. That was a turn of events he hadn't been expecting. "Oh yeah. Yeah, I did do that."

"Yeah! So I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out tonight? Not to the diner. To a bar; get a drink or something."

Dean hesitated. Did he want to go get a drink with her? Sure, she was gorgeous, and friendly, and had flirted with him and made him laugh earlier, and if he said yes he was pretty much guaranteed to have a good night. She was exactly the type of girl he usually went for.

But at the same time, he'd promised Castiel he'd call him back...

"Something's actually come up for tonight, so I can't. Thanks for calling, though."

"Alright, then. Bye, Dean." She sounded disappointed, and Dean felt bad, but it wasn't the same kind of ache that he felt when he'd realized Castiel didn't believe that he'd actually return his call.

Immediately, Dean went into his recent calls folder and pressed on Castiel's number. He picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, Cas!" Dean blurted, before the other man could get a word in.

"Dean. You called back," Cas replied in disbelief.

"Of course I did. Said I would. That was the waitress from the diner on the other line. Turned out she put my number into her phone after all."

"That's great," Cas said, clearly making an effort to sound sincere. "So you've got a date tonight after all?"

"Yeah, about that. I turned her down."

"What? Why?"

Dean took a deep breath. He still wasn't a hundred per cent sure about this, but maybe it was time to take Castiel's brother's advice and just see what happened. What _was_ the worst that could happen?

"Because I thought that maybe I could have a date with you instead."

Dean didn't even know what Cas looked like (although with a voice like that, how could he _not_ be attractive?) but from the slight hitch in his breath he could somehow picture the expression of surprise passing over Cas' face.

"With _me_?"

"You could come over. I could cook; any kind of food you want, or a surprise. We could watch a movie, or just hang out and talk, and maybe I'll figure out what it is that makes you special."

"Yes," Cas said simply.

"Yes?"

"It's an expression of agreement, Dean," Cas said, and they both laughed with relief, their nervousness dissipating together. "It means that I would, in fact, like to come over for a date."

"Great. Then I'll see you soon."

"Really soon."

They paused, neither of them wanting to hang up.

"I can't leave until you text me the address, Dean," Cas finally, reluctantly said.

Dean blushed. "Right. Yeah. Bye, then."

Dean was right. He was right in that he discovered many things that were special about Cas; possibly even more special things than he could name about anyone else in the world. He was right in making the decision to ask Cas over, because he never once regretted not going out with the waitress.

And he had been right about one more thing, too. He _did_ get laid that night.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm going to be at Supernatural NJ Con all weekend so if you're gonna be there too, hit me up on tumblr (i'm **casandsip** )


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